Welcome to the Obamanation

One of our most optimistic presidents, Ronald Reagan, once said, “It’s morning in America.” Well, things have changed. I’m not so optimistic these days, so I’ll just say: It’s MOURNING in America, and things will never be the same again. We now live in a far different country than we were living in before Sunday night when government-controlled socialized med-icine was voted in by the Democrats in Congress. We will, from now on, have less personal freedom and more government control. That, in a nutshell, is the change that has taken place. This is a fact.
Obama promised change, and lots of people thought that sounded great. And lots of people voted him into office. Well, here it is, folks. You got your change now… big time. Obama said in his campaign speech, “We live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you’ll join me as we try to change it.” At the time it sounded like a joke, a misstatement, but he meant it. He’s kept his promise, he has now changed America. Welcome to the U.S.A., the United Sweden of America.
Welcome to bigger, Soviet-style government in every way. Redistribution of wealth, more entitlement programs, more government bureaucrats, higher taxes, doctor shortages, long waits for medical procedures, and less choice in medical care overall. The federal government has taken over another entire industry that once was private.
The following is from the lead editorial of The Wall Street Journal the Monday after Obamacare passed: “House Democrats last night passed President Obama’s federal takeover of the U.S. heath-care system…This week’s votes don’t end our health-care debates. By making medical care a subsidiary of Washington, they guarantee such debates will never end. And by ramming the vote through Congress on a narrow partisan majority, and against so much popular opposition, Democrats have taken responsibility for what comes next – to insurance premiums, government spending, doctor shortages and the quality of care. They are the rulers of American medicine.”
But this bill was not really about medicine, or helping the downtrodden, or making healthcare available to all or anything like that. This was all about the federal government taking over an enormous portion of the private sector. Big Brother controls the masses. And if you like the way the post office has been running, and if you like the DMV, and if you like the Internal Revenue Service, then you’re going to LOVE the way Washington controls your health-care.
And if you DON’T like it, what then? What are you going to do, go to a different country? That’s what many people did in foreign countries that had socialized medicine up until now. The ones that could came here so that they could get a better quality of doctors and medical care. The world knew that the best medical care in the world was in the United States. Now there’s no place for them to go, and there’s no place for us to go.
Yes, Obama and his leftist cronies in the Democratic Party have brought change, but this is only the beginning. As Victor Davis Hanson writes, “So we are in revolutionary times in which the government will grow to assume everything from energy use to student loans, while abroad we are a revolutionary sort of power, eager to mend fences with Syria and Iran, more eager still to distance ourselves from old Western allies like Israel and Britain.” Change indeed.
The one problem with our form of government has always been this: We are a government of the people and by the people. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as the people are well-informed, hard-working, principled, and religious. That’s right, I said religious, because the Judeo-Christian beliefs were paramount in the founding of our country. Without a firm belief in God and his commandments to guide us, we are lost. Believers in God founded the United States of America. Atheists founded Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
When most people want to do the right things, the old fashioned things like uphold the Golden Rule, work hard to get ahead, do unto others the way you would have others do unto you, take care of your family, give to charity, and do good deeds, then America can’t lose. But when the majority turns away from these ideas, when the majority becomes self-centered, lazy, and greedy, then we’re sunk. We vote for empty promises of milk and honey for all, and what we get are false gods and lies.
For socialists, Marxists, and others who believe in the communistic way, this change in America is cause for celebration. For the rest of us, sadly, it is mourning in America. Sorry President Reagan. I guess we just couldn’t hold on to it.

About

The Tolucan Times is a free weekly community newspaper, published since 1937 and available online. With over 600 drop locations throughout the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys from Encino to Pasadena, The Tolucan Times serves the communities of Glendale, Flintridge La Canada, Burbank, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and Van Nuys, to list a few.